Evaluation of a New Strategy for Control of Bovine Tuberculosis in Michigan White-Tailed Deer: Year 1 Progress Report

The State of Michigan is striving to eliminate bovine tuberculosis (Tb) infection among free-ranging white-tailed deer in the northeastern Lower Peninsula of the state. Aggressive reduction in the overall deer population abundance may help to further reduce TB prevalence, but this course of action is unacceptable to many hunters and landowners. Targeted culling of sick deer would likely be far more acceptable to these stakeholders, so in the winter of 2003 the Michigan Department of Natural Resources pilot-trialed a new strategy based on live-trapping and Tb-testing of wild deer. The field study was conducted in a township with relatively high TB prevalence within Deer Management Unit 452 in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. Over a 2-month trapping period, 119 individual deer were live-trapped, blood sampled, fitted with a radio-collar, and released. A total of 31 of these deer were subsequently classified as Tb-suspect by at least one of five blood tests employed (however there was a low level of agreement among tests). A delay in testing meant that only six of these suspect deer were culled by sharpshooters before pre-programmed release of their radio-collars, after which they could no longer be located. Mycobacterium bovis was cultured from one of these six suspect deer; the other five were negative on culture. All target deer were located to within shooting range with 1 – 2 days of effort, and all the radio-collars on the apparently-healthy deer dropped off after the intended 90-day interval, and were thereafter recovered for re-use. There was considerable support for this pilot project among hunters, farmers, state and federal agriculture agencies, the media and the general public, and so we recommend that further field trials be undertaken using this technique. The initial focus of these trials should be on improving the efficacy and reliability of the blood testing procedure.

THE MONK PARAKEET IN NEW YORK

Attention was focused on the Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus) in New York State in 1971 when the first successful breeding record was documented for the state although Monk Parakeets had been noticed in New York and New Jersey since 1968 (Bull, 1971). Since 1971 awareness of the bird’s potential for becoming an established species in New York has spread through several segments of the state’s populace. This awareness has been created primarily through two articles in the magazine published by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), The Conservationist (Trimm, 1972) (Trimm, 1973); several articles in popular magazines, Parade, Yankee, Sports Afield; journals, American Birds and Kingbird; county cooperative extension bulletins and newsletters; and in numerous newspapers throughout the Northeast. The Monk Parakeet is about 12 inches long (Mourning Dove size), weighs about 90 grams, and is native to Argentina and other temperate regions of South America. The bird is pale green with a soft gray forehead and breast, some blue on the flight feathers and a flesh-colored bill. They are gregarious throughout the year. The Monk Parakeet differs from other members of the parrot family in that it builds large communal nests of sticks. Each pair of parakeets has its own private compartment with a downward-pointing tunnel entrance from the inner unlined compartment. The nest is used as sleeping quarters year round and live twigs cut by the bird are continually added to the structure (Bump, 1971). A brief review of the bird’s history in New York shows that the bird remained a mere curiosity until 1972. At that time, because the population seemed to be increasing and because information gleaned from the literature and from those with first-hand experience with the bird in its native haunts of South America indicated that the bird posed a serious potential agricultural problem, several prominent individuals, birding and conservation societies, and state and federal agencies took the position that the bird should be retrieved or removed from the wild.